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UN officials on Wednesday vowed to do everything they can to stop conflict-wracked South Sudan from falling into genocide, and warned all the warring factions that they will be held responsible if famine breaks out in the country.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay verbally attacked both rebel leader Riek Machar and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, saying that she was “appalled by the apparent lack of concern about the risk of famine displayed by both leaders”. The comments come after Pillay and a special genocide envoy held talks with rival leaders a day after the UN made an appeal for a month long truce to avert a humanitarian and famine disaster.
UN envoy for prevention of genocide Adama Dieng said in a joint press conference with Pillay, “To the survivors of the genocide, we owe a pledge to take all possible measures within our power to protect populations from another Rwanda, there is no excuse for inaction. It is clear that the conflict has taken a dangerous trajectory, and civilians are being deliberately targeted based on their ethnicity and perceived political affiliation”.
A ceasefire signed by all the parties involved in January is basically in tatters as thousands of people are now sheltered by UN bases following ethnic massacres, rapes, forced recruitment, killings in churches, mosques, hospitals and other war crimes. “The deadly mix of recrimination, hate speech, and revenge killings that has developed relentlessly over the past four and a half months seems to be reaching boiling point”, Pillay said.
“The country’s leaders, instead of seizing their chance to steer their impoverished and war-battered young nation to stability and greater prosperity, have instead embarked on a personal power struggle that has brought their people to the verge of catastrophe. The prospect of widespread hunger and malnutrition being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of their people, because of their personal failure to resolve their differences peacefully, did not appear to concern them very much”, she added.
The civil war in South Sudan, now in its fourth month, has already resulted in the deaths of thousands and caused over 1.2 million people to flee from their homes. South Sudan had gained its independence from Sudan only three years ago.